Between a rock and a hard place, the Mets were in the
unenviable position of losing no matter how they handled what should be Terry
Collins’ final game managing at Citifield.
They have not publicly stated that he won’t be back, so if there’s a
glimmer of hope for the man, then having a sendoff celebration would be
inappropriate. They have not stated he
is fired for poor performance (and I won’t even go down the long list of
citable reasons why that’s an easy case to make), so you don’t generally hold
public commemorations of firing someone.
He has not announced his own retirement – the only reason why you would
indeed hold a public sendoff party.
Consequently many fans and some of the media are excoriating the Mets
for another tone-deaf public relations gaffe.
In this case, I think they deserve a break.
First of all, they are not innocent. If they have met internally and decided that
it’s time to move on from Collins, then they should have either done so already
or announced that he won’t be back. Had
they done the former, then he could have exited quietly while there was still
something of a season to try to salvage.
If they chose the latter, then a proper thank you day for him could have
been planned and executed.
If they are still awaiting Collins to say, “Hey guys, I’m
hanging up my uniform for good,” well, Collins doesn’t owe it to the Mets to
make their lives easier any more than the Mets owe it to Collins to make his
departure easier. Baseball is a business
and when someone performs poorly, you don’t keep him around for the sake of
loyalty. Winning breeds profitability
and anyone or anything that stands in the way of winning should be
changed.
By Collins not announcing his retirement he’s forcing the
Mets’ hand. They will have to make the
call whether to retain or terminate him.
It shines a bad light on the Mets in that they did not man up and tell
the man directly, rather than simply waiting for the contract to expire. That passive-aggressive zing at the Mets
management is understandable, but then one could argue that having lost more
games (by a wide margin) than any other manager in Mets history, Collins should
be somewhat grateful for the team having kept him on the payroll as long as
they have.
So the Mets and Terry Collins are equally culpable in
denying him his proper sendoff. The Mets
were in a no-win situation and Collins compounded it by not revealing his
future plans.
Supposedly the Mets are bringing back the same front office
that built this Titanic, so it would not surprise me in the least to see the
same captain and crew heading towards the same icebergs in 2018. A fresh start and a fresh approach needs to
happen, starting at the top.
8 comments:
Met fans prefer Tom Collins over Terry Collins by a 3 to 1 margin. Time...to...retire.
Keith, Ron and Gary all said last night that Terry should remain as the manager next year. They talked about how 97% of what a manager does is not seen by the fans. Gary also mentioned that ALL teams want there manager replaced. As I have said in the past, I believe that Terry is not the best manager, but he is not the worst by any means. I think the biggest issue the Mets need to figure out is communication on injuries. If that problem is the managers, then a chance is needed. There needs to be ONE person that makes the call if a player can play that night, need to see a doctor, or to be put on the DL. It is crazy how many injuries that this team has had the last 3 years. If that ONE person tells any player he needs a MRI, then that player needs to get an MRI. Hopefully the team learned a lesson on some of the mistakes of Thor and Cespedes.
The issue of accountability is huge on all sides. If a player is an employee and his employer says to go for a test, then he needs to go for a test or forfeit his paycheck. Allowing this to happen is a matter of a lack of accountability on the part of Sandy Alderson.
Terry Collins is an awful manager. I have never seen anyone on the field make so many bizarre lineup decisions, burn the bullpen, blatantly favor veterans at the expense of developing younger players and doing everything in his power to demotivate his team. Do you remember when he dissed Conforto both for not being soemone who is a leader and then expressing surprise that he was named to the All Star team by the rest of the league who could see what he couldn't see? That's just ONE example...benching Flores after a 4-hit game is another...I could go on and on. Tell me, who is worse at managing in this game that currently has a job?
@Tom -- every time I watch Terry Collins I'm reminded of Lloyd Bridges' character from "Airplane" and his recurring, "Guess I picked a bad day to give up (vice)" refrain. Watching Terry Collins has many of us muttering the same things.
Collins needs to go and Sandy will make sure of it. The problem is that Sandy also needs to go but will the Wilpons have the gravitas to tell him that?
If you havent read Marc Carig's article about terry collins and the clubhouse dysfunction in newsday you really need to.
@Robb -- thanks for recommending it. Nothing in the article surprises me. I've been saying the same things for years about the Skipper but finally there's the slightest glimmer of hope we've come to the end of the line with Mets fans and players alike about to be paroled.
The link: (Man I'm pissed tonight!)
http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/sources-mets-owner-fred-wilpon-protected-terry-collins-from-getting-fired-1.14297441
Post a Comment